


Apartment Living

by evakuality



Category: Druck | SKAM (Germany)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Fluff, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:07:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22302328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evakuality/pseuds/evakuality
Summary: Just admiring someone isn’t a crime, and if this guy is moving in here, well … as he keeps plodding upwards, Matteo’s realises he is not unhappy that this guy might be his new neighbour of sorts.aka, the one where David moves into his building, and Matteo finds it fairly distracting.
Relationships: Matteo Florenzi/David (Druck)
Comments: 78
Kudos: 245





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the tumblr prompt: Could you witte a davenzi fic where theyre a bit older and David moves into Matteos appartement building and they lowkey fall in love? or something like that?
> 
> Originally posted to tumblr, but updates will most likely be here first and then linked there.

_ Matteo _

Matteo is exhausted, feet dragging as he climbs the stairs to his apartment, and his breath coming in short, sharp gasps. He’s maybe not as fit as he potentially should be and he’s starting to wish he’d done more exercise over the last few years. Not for the first time he regrets the impulse that led him to moving into an apartment on the very highest floor of the building. Sure, the view from his tiny balcony can be stunning when the weather is nice, but he’s not entirely sure it’s worth the long plod up the seemingly endless staircases.

His head is pounding from the amount of thinking he’s had to do today, and even the knowledge that he’s almost home isn’t enough to dispel the irritation he’s feeling at this neverending trek. He’s thinking wistfully of pain meds as he turns the corner on the second to last set of stairs and groans.

There’s some sort of blockage on the landing of the floor below his own. There are a bunch of people Matteo doesn’t know milling in the small, cramped space, most of them holding boxes. They’re loud, and there’s some sort of argument flowing between them. It seems mostly good natured, but it’s enough to make Matteo’s head pound worse than it already was. He can’t get past them, and his energy levels are so low that the idea of squeezing through them makes him shudder.

He stops, just behind a girl with long dark hair pinned back into a messy bun. She’s one of the louder of the participants and Matteo winces as her voice sends a stab of pain right through his head.

“David,” she’s saying with a booming laugh that reverberates through Matteo, “are you sure you don’t just want to stay with me a bit longer? This doesn’t seem to be working.”

Someone up ahead, who Matteo can’t quite see apart from a burst of tight curls on the top of his head, groans. He says something too low to carry to Matteo, but it makes the dark haired woman’s laughter peal out again. Matteo scowls. He doesn’t have time for this. Or he doesn’t  _ want _ to have time for this, not even if the guy’s voice was musical and deep enough to send entirely inappropriate shivers right through him.

Thankfully, it only seems to take a few moments before whatever has held the group up has been moved and the whole bunch of them start flooding into a door to the left of the landing. With another sigh, Matteo manages to weave his way around the last of the people and turns to go up to his own floor.

As he starts upwards, he glances down to find the curly-haired guy (David, maybe?) looking his way. The guy gives a small, apologetic smile as he shuts the door behind the last of the people with boxes.

One thing Matteo notices immediately is that he’s incredibly attractive, with dark eyes, an unfairly well-defined jawline, skin that glows in the soft light from the bulb just outside his door, and hair that’s been styled into a pile of curls that looks artful and which hasn’t seemed to have come loose during the move. It’s fairly devastating for someone who hasn’t had time for a relationship in the last several months, and Matteo knows that’s all this must be: residual longing for someone to be with and latching onto the nearest attractive man who happens to stumble into his path. 

Still. Just admiring someone isn’t a crime, and if this guy is moving in here, well … as he keeps plodding upwards, Matteo’s realises he is not unhappy that this guy might be his new neighbour of sorts. 

Despite the attractiveness of the new guy, Matteo doesn’t really give him much more thought for the next few days. It’s a busy time at work and so he’s out of his apartment at an unreasonably early hour and never gets home until so late that he can’t even think of cooking.

He’s struggling up the stairs, fumbling for his keys with a bag of takeout food clenched between his teeth when Matteo next runs into the guy. Literally.

“Fuck,” he hears as his head falls back with a sickening thud, and pain lances through his head. Matteo looks up in a panic. The guy is on that same second to last landing, holding his hand to his forehead and still looking ridiculously attractive in the dim light. His eyes gleam, and his lips are pursed in a way that makes Matteo’s stomach flip. Or maybe that’s the sickness from the crack to his head; he’s certainly not feeling entirely at his best.

Matteo stops riffling through his backpack and grabs the food bag out of his mouth. “Shit, I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking.”

“I can tell,” the guy says, but his eyes are twinkling as he takes in Matteo’s appearance. His eyes flicker up and down Matteo’s body in a way that makes him feel exposed and vulnerable. Sized up, maybe. It sends a wave of heat through him and he has to shake himself to regain his composure.

“Sorry, long week,” he says, pushing the backpack back up onto his shoulder to try to get the guy’s intense focus off of himself. “Thank fuck that’s over.”

The guy holds his hand out. “I’m David,” he says. “Just moved in.”

“Yeah I know,” Matteo says, then immediately blushes because that suggests he’s been paying attention and he hasn’t. Not really. David’s just the most interesting thing that’s happened in the building all week (and maybe he’s a little attractive too, but that was never the point, not entirely). “I mean,” he says, trying to cover up the faux pas, “I saw your friends in the corridor when you were moving. It made an impression.”

“They tend to do that,” David says with another laugh. “Laura is the worst.”

Oh. That must be the girl who was teasing him that day. The one who made it clear that he’d been staying with her before moving in here. Matteo swallows, thinking maybe he’d been misreading the signs. He needs to get out of here before he makes an even bigger fool of himself. So he turns to David and plasters a smile onto his face. He’s pretty sure it’s unconvincing, but maybe it’ll work since this guy doesn’t really know him very well.

_ David _

“Anyway, welcome to the building,” the blond guy says with a wide smile that looks a little strained. David wonders what’s happened to change the feeling from something a little flirty to this tension. The guy looks down at the food in his hand and grimaces ostentatiously, possibly because it’s getting cold. He holds it up and wriggles it in a way that suggests that, in any case. “I’d better … uh, better go.”

“Yeah, okay,” David says, feeling disappointed. Having finally managed to run into The Guy from the day he moved in again, he’d really wanted to keep the conversation going, make some sort of connection. He can tell that he must be showing that disappointment all over his face, and the other guy’s demeanour changes as he looks at him. A tiny smile flickers over those lips and he ducks his head.

As if he is suddenly reluctant to move away too, the guy says “I’m sorry about crashing into you,” as he moves towards the stairs leading to the next floor. “I should make it up to you sometime.”

The idea sparks something warm inside David. His head is throbbing, but he’s not all that concerned. Just the opportunity to talk to this guy made the pain worthwhile. Still, he can sense an opening when he sees one and if this guy wants to make up something to him he’s not going to say no.

“Make it up how?”

The guy grins and raises his brows, nodding towards David’s door which is slightly ajar and through which piles of boxes can still be seen haphazardly plonked wherever his friends decided to leave them.

“I’ll cook,” the guy says. It must be hard in a new place to do anything much.”

David laughs, thinking of the new cookware Laura had smuggled into his home but which is still sitting in boxes under the kitchen sink. “I can’t cook anyway,” he admits, “but yeah trying to navigate the unpacked boxes isn’t all that great.”

He gives a pointed look at the takeout the guy is holding, trying to suggest that he’s not much better if that’s what he’s been eating, and is completely charmed when he rolls his eyes.

“It’s been a long week!” he protests with a wry smile. “I usually cook; I’m pretty good actually. I’ll make you my famous pasta, and you’ll be blown away.”

David laughs and agrees. He’s tempted to tease some more just to see more of that charming protesting, but the guy turns and starts up the stairs, indicating he’s done with the conversation.

As he watches the guy moving away, David realises he didn’t get his name in return and there’s no way he’s going to let that slide, not when he has this really attractive guy offering to cook for him. So he raises his voice a little and calls out, “hey!”

The guy turns back towards him with a quizzical look on his face. His hair is flopping down into his eyes and David’s heart flips a beat in his chest. He’d noticed the guy right away the day he moved here and he’d been thinking about that hair and the way it flopped ever since.

“I didn’t get your name,” he says, shaking himself enough that he’s able to focus.

“Matteo,” the guy says, running his free hand through that hair and making it stick up wildy. “You want to come for dinner tomorrow?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” David says. He watches as Matteo smiles again and starts climbing the stairs up to his own apartment. “Wait. Matteo!” he calls again. “You didn’t tell me which place is yours.”

“Oh.” It may be David’s imagination but Matteo looks embarrassed if the red flush that stains his cheeks is anything to go by. “It’s just at the top of the stairs there.” He points at a door that’s just visible when David ducks his head out to look upwards. “I’ll see you there about six?”

With an affirmation, David pulls back to go inside his own apartment. His head is still pounding from where Matteo had crashed into him, but he’s not too worried about that. 

He’s been trying to catch another glimpse of the guy since the day he moved here, but until now he’d had no such luck. It seems like Matteo works some very unfortunate hours, and it was just good luck that they happened to pass in the corridor. 

David’s been a little lonely since moving in, if he’s going to be honest with himself. He wants to make some new friends, since most of his own now live so far away from him that seeing them is proving more difficult than he’d imagined when he’d blithely suggested moving out of Laura’s apartment and into his own. His original plan had involved a lot of hanging around just outside his own apartment in hopes of running into someone interesting. Into Matteo. But that’s not going to work if Matteo consistently works these ridiculous hours. Running into him tonight had been pure luck.

Wanting to meet people in his new building is the only reason he’s been so focused on Matteo, David insists to himself as he closes his own door behind him. He wants a friend, and if that friends happens to be attractive, well that’s just an added bonus. So. If he’s going to manage to get to know this guy, David’s going to have to find a way to connect better than randomly seeing each other around, obviously. 

And that means that dinner tomorrow seems like just the opportunity he needs.


	2. Chapter 2

_ David _

Just before six, David stands outside Matteo’s door. He’d spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to decide which of his shirts might best say ‘I’m into you but I’m not trying too hard in case you’re only interested in a friend’ and that had ended with him having to take the stairs three at a time to make it without being late. Not that he wants anything more than a friend, of course, but it doesn’t hurt to be open to something. If Matteo happens to also be open to something. 

David runs his hands through his hair, hoping it doesn’t look quite as much like a rat’s nest as it feels. He hadn’t had enough time to really make sure his appearance was up to scratch in the effort to find exactly the right shirt. So he’s going to have to rely on his natural charm and hope for the best.

Knocking, David blows his breath out and shakes out his fingers. He can do this. It’s just a little dinner after all, and he’s pretty sure that from Matteo’s point of view he’s the one who has to make the effort, not realising that having his head almost cracked open had basically made David’s entire day yesterday.

The door swings open and there’s Matteo. Apparently the passage of a day has driven away David’s memories of how good he looked, or Matteo is just more stunning in the dim light shining behind his head, because David can only gape at him instead of making the silly quip he had planned. His hair is exactly as floppy as it had been yesterday, and the sight of his brushing it impatiently out of his eyes makes David’s heart flip over exactly the same way it had yesterday. His smile, too, is bright and beautiful, and david is helpless in the face of it.

“Come on in,” Matteo says cheerfully as he steps back and David finally manages to make his brain catch up with his body just after he’s entered. He waves the cup he’s brought along.

“Borrow a cup of sugar?” he asks with a grin, and Matteo rolls his eyes with a small blush that can’t quite hide the smile that blooms quickly before it drops away again into something more restrained. But the twinkle remains, and it’s entirely devastating to David’s sense of peace.

“Funny,” Matteo says as he takes the cup and leads the way down the hallway and into the kitchen.

“I’ve been told I’m hilarious,” David says, laughing as they get into the large open space that contains Matteo’s kitchen and dining area.

“Whoever told you that was obviously taking pity on you,” Matteo says, looking over his shoulder with a grin. David fakes offence, clasping his hand to his chest melodramatically, and loudly proclaiming that he  _ is too _ very funny. Matteo laughs along with him, shaking his head fondly.

He indicates in the direction of the table, clearly wanting David to sit and behave, and makes his way back to the stove top, where he has something simmering. The smell that’s wafting out of it is heavenly and David’s mouth starts watering.

“Wow you really can cook,” David says, inhaling appreciatively and leaning over the pot instead of sitting like he was asked to. He doesn’t miss the smile that blossoms around Matteo’s lips or the way his eyes drift down over David’s body before he turns back to what he’s doing.

“I’m Italian,” Matteo says with a wink. “I’d be disinherited if I couldn’t make a decent pasta.”

“Italian, huh?” David says, finally giving in and settling down on a chair and staring unabashedly at Matteo as he moves competently around the kitchen. He looks good like this, with confidence and authority, a far cry from the frazzled guy who’d crashed into him yesterday.

“Mmmm, on my father’s side. He left to go back, though, so I don’t see him too much anymore.”

“That must suck,” David says, thinking of his own difficult relationships with a few of his family members. It’s never fun to deal with distanced relationships like that.

Matteo looks over his shoulder at him and smiles. “It’s not so bad,” he says. “This way he can’t complain about me being gay every few minutes.”

His body when he turns back to the food holds a slight ripple of tension, one David can read well. It’s the familiar studied nonchalance you do when you say something important but you don’t want the other person to realise  _ how _ important it is. Of course, this particular piece of information has David practically dancing in his seat but he manages to contain himself.

“Tell me about it,” he says, equally casually. “My aunt just about faints every time she sees me because she thinks I’ll damn the whole family for eternity with my evil pansexual ways.”

Matteo’s body shifts subtly, relaxing and losing the tiny tension that’s been holding it taut, and the smile he directs over his shoulder this time is different somehow. Slower, and the drift of his eyes over David is a little more heated, a little more pointed.

His own breath catches in his throat as their eyes meet and Matteo’s smile widens. Then Matteo seems to shake himself and drags his eyes away and back to the food.

“Almost done,” he says, his voice slightly husky but otherwise showing no signs of having been affected by whatever  _ that _ was.

_ Matteo _

It had been a risk to mention being gay so soon, but Matteo has had enough of wistful pining over straight boys. He figures it’s best to get that sort of information out as early as possible in order to both weed out assholes and to stop him from wasting time on yet another crush on someone who’ll never see him the way he wants to be seen. It’s something he tends to do early on to avoid the sort of lasting confusion he’s so often felt in the past.

So it’s a calculated risk, but Matteo can feel the tension in his back as he turns away from David. It means a lot more than it usually does, and if he’s being perfectly honest Matteo isn’t even sure what gave him the confidence to ask David over here tonight anyway. Normally guys like him, handsome, confident and charming, make Matteo tongue tied and awkward. But there was something about David that had made Matteo want to take the leap.

So it’s with a flood of relief that Matteo hears David’s story about his own issues with his family. And suddenly everything takes on more meaning. When Matteo looks at David he sees something in those eyes, something he was half sure might have been there when they met in the hallways, but now that he knows David likes guys too, it feels like it’s filled with  _ something. _

So he swallows and pulls his attention back to the food. By the time he’s got it all under control, Matteo thinks he’s got his body in line too, his heart has stopped racing and his hands don’t shake. Or not much at least.

“Almost done,” he says, gratified to note that his voice is barely affected. He’s going to count that as a win. A quick glance at David shows him slouched against the table, leaning on his arm and smiling at Matteo with his head tilted.

The look in his eyes is so amused that Matteo can’t keep his own smile off his face. There’s something about David that makes Matteo feel like smiling whenever he’s around. It’s scary, actually, how easy he finds it to be with him. He doesn’t usually warm to people this quickly, preferring to meet in groups rather than such intimate settings.

He serves the food and they eat. David’s laugh rings out often, and Matteo realises after a few minutes that he’s trying to be wittier than usual because he wants to hear it more. It makes his cheeks flush. He’s so obvious, he hopes David isn’t immediately picking up on everything he’s thinking and feeling. Or maybe, he thinks as he catches David’s eyes on him, hot and maybe even interested, he does want David to notice. Maybe he wants this to go somewhere.

“So,” he says eventually, when they’ve pushed their plates aside and have settled back with a beer each, “you just moved in.”

“I did,” David agrees easily, leaning back in his chair and making his body look long and lean, and Matteo is hard pressed to keep his eyes away from the way his shirt pulls back and clings to his torso. It’s distracting, and it’s only David’s speech that makes Matteo draw his eyes back up to his face. Which may have been a mistake as well. His cheeks are flushed with the heat, his eyes sparkling and he keeps licking his lips and drawing Matteo’s attention to them. It almost looks purposeful.

“Laura, that’s my sister, she was getting sick of having me living in her spare room.” David shrugs, laughing as he takes a sip of his beer. “It was probably time to move out. We were getting on each other’s nerves.”

Matteo doesn’t quite relate to that; he had been reluctant to leave the security and comfort of the flat with Hans and Linn after Mia had left. They had been something of a small family even when none of them really had one of their own which really worked as a proper unit. They’d been there for each other in every way that counted, and Matteo had felt a large lump forming in his throat when he’d had to hug them goodbye.

“I had to move when our lease ran out and my flatmates both moved in with their partners,” he says, and he can hear the wistfulness in his voice. “I miss it sometimes, having someone else to share a space with.”

“Ah,” David says with a smile as if he understands, as if he knows what it’s like. “You’re lonely.”

It should feel embarrassing to admit something like that to someone he’s just met, but David makes it feel normal, so Matteo nods. “Yeah, I guess I am,” he says. 

“We can be friends, then,” David says decisively, plonking his beer down on the table and sloshing it over the sides in the process. He holds out his hand as if to strike a bargain. “You can lend me sugar and cook for me, and I can lend you my company.”

Matteo laughs, then, genuinely amused, but he takes the hands being held out to him. His fingers tingle when their hands drop away and he can’t help the flush he knows must be sitting in his cheeks. Even just touching David’s fingers has made him  _ want. _ “I think I get the worst end of that deal,” he says to cover for it.

“No way,” David says, pushing him with his foot. “My company is amazing and you get to cook for someone else, which I can tell you love, so you’re definitely winning here.”

As reluctant as he is to admit it, Matteo thinks maybe he  _ does _ get a good deal here. If he can convince David to spend more time with him, even if it is as just friends, then Matteo will be happy. But he thinks as he glances over at David and catches that look in his eye again, that he may even get to be something other than friends.

The idea is heady and enticing, and he has to bury his sudden smile in his beer. And when David leaves that evening, Matteo’s sure he’ll see him again, and soon. He’s excited by the idea and the promise that hangs in the air as they say goodnight. Being bumped out of his new routine for the first time since moving in feels good.


	3. Chapter 3

_ Matteo _

There’s a resounding crash at his door, and Matteo starts up with his heart racing. He’s so used to buzzing people in and having a little warning that he’s still always taken by surprise when David knocks on his door. Not that it happens all that often, but it’s regular enough that he shouldn’t be this affected every single time it happens.

He opens it warily, unsure what might have set David off this time. In the few days that this has been happening, Matteo has grown to know the different types of knocks. There’s the ‘I just want a chat’ knock, quiet and low key. There’s the excitable ‘I want to tell you something’ knock. There’s the slightly melancholy ‘I’m feeling lonely’ knock. But this one is new. This one has a sense of urgency.

“What’s up?” he says, as he sees David outside his door, face lit up and eyes dancing. For someone who was pounding on Matteo’s door just moments ago he looks relaxed and at ease. He looks gorgeous, his hair styled into tight curls for once and the t-shirt he has on is slim fitting and almost designed to make Matteo’s pulse race. Or maybe that’s the way he’s slouched against the door frame, pulled it close against his body and making Matteo think things he potentially shouldn’t be thinking about his best friend in this building.

“There’s going to be a big party,” David says, drawing Matteo’s gaze back to his face and smirking as he pushes past Matteo and into his apartment. This has become familiar too, David treating Matteo’s apartment as if it’s an extension of his own.

“A big … party?”

“Yeah. Everyone’s going to be there.”

“I’m sorry. I’m not quite following. A party? Why does this affect me?”

“It’s for the whole building, Matteo. It’s literally on posters all over the place.”

Matteo shrugs. “I don’t pay attention to that sort of stuff.”

David rolls his eyes and bumps Matteo’s shoulder affectionately. “Too busy grumping about climbing all the stairs?”

“Shut up! It’s tiring.”

But he can already feel his heart is lighter just from interacting with David. Matteo’s not one for big parties with people he doesn’t know. He loves dancing and having fun when he’s with his friends, but this seems like not entirely his thing. But David is so lit up and happy about it that he’s starting to feel some residual enthusiasm. If David is there too, maybe it could even be fun.

“So, are you going to come? I need my partner in crime,” David says. His eyes are earnest on Matteo’s and his body is slightly tense (and since when did Matteo learn how to read his body language quite this effectively?) making it obvious it means a lot to him for Matteo to come too. Sometimes Matteo wonders if David isn’t quite as confident as he likes people to think he is.

“I guess I could take pity on you,” Matteo says. “Not for too long though, I need my beauty sleep.”

David rolls his eyes again. “Not likely. You’re hot and you know it.”

Matteo flushes at the compliment. David’s eyes hold that promise again, the one that says maybe. The one that says there could be something going on here if Matteo only had enough courage to say something. He doesn’t though, just keeps on hoping that David might have the courage that he lacks.

Part of him enjoys it, he thinks. Enjoys the frisson of energy that floods through him whenever their eyes meet in that particular, heated way. Enjoys it when David appears at his door with yet another reason why they need to speak. Enjoys the way they dance around the point. And maybe that’s why he’s never taken that step to actually say what he’s feeling.

“You didn’t even ask what day it is?” David is saying now, laughing. “You don’t even know if you’re working the next day.”

“I’m always working.”

“Okay, fair point,” David concedes. “But that’s even more reason why you should take a little time for yourself. I’m sure your work can live without you for one Sunday. You can have one Saturday night of fun.”

“I already said I’ll go!”

“I know. I just wanted to hear it again.”

David whoops and grabs Matteo to spin him around. Matteo stumbles a little as his feet leave the floor for a second, but then David’s hands are firm on his arms, holding him steady. He’s so close that Matteo could lean forward and brush their lips together. He could even frame it as an accident if things didn’t go quite as he’d hope they might. They’re so close, and there’s a simmering something that means Matteo’s fairly sure he wouldn’t have to call it an accident.

But instead of pressing forward, he sucks in a breath and there’s suddenly a tension thrumming between them. David’s eyes drift down to Matteo’s lips, and he licks his own. It sends a flutter of longing right into the pit of Matteo’s stomach. There’s no way they could pretend it was an accident if it happened now. 

Matteo’s frozen for several long moments, eyes fixed on David’s and his heart thumping erratically in his chest. But then David clears his throat and steps back, releasing Matteo’s arms and dragging his eyes away. 

“So … uh, anyway. It’s on Saturday night. I can pick you up?”

Blinking, trying to control his breathing so it doesn’t look like he’s been  _ that _ affected, Matteo tries to parse that thought. Pick him up? Like a date? Matteo is almost sure there’s something happening here, there have certainly been enough of those charged almost moments, but he’s still not certain enough to make those sorts of assumptions. 

So he nods and says something sarcastic and deflective, but still resolves to wear something decent on Saturday. Something maybe even a little fitted and flattering. Even if he can’t say it here and now, Matteo’s not missing an opportunity to impress David.

And maybe, with enough drink or enough partying or enough  _ something, _ he might be able to say something on Saturday.

_ David _

There’s something warm and happy in Matteo’s eyes once he’s agreed to go to the party and David decides he’ll just have to be satisfied with that. At least for now. There had been that one moment when David had come close, so close, to just diving in and kissing him to see what would happen.

The problem was that Matteo is still holding something back. So. He’s gay, and David’s pan and they both know the other is into guys. What’s more, David’s 99% sure they’re both into each other. There’s something hot in Matteo’s gaze when he forgets himself and lets himself truly relax. Something that says they could connect in another way.

But unfortunately there’s still something sitting between them that doesn’t let it go past those heated glances. It’s infuriating in many ways. And yet there’s something about it that sparks David’s imagination. He’s never been one to enjoy the chase, preferring to dive in or stay away. But with Matteo, the frisson of watching him and seeing the moments when his eyes go unguarded and his laugh becomes free and easy. Well, those moments make it worth all the frustration.

“So,” David says now, sitting down on a chair in the kitchen and grinning at the amused huff Matteo gives. “Do you have a beer? Convincing you to have fun is exhausting work.”

Matteo rolls his eyes, but he’s already opening the fridge before David’s even finished speaking, so normal is this routine for them now.

“I have fun,” he protests, a spot of colour high on his cheeks as if he’s embarrassed to be called out in this way. And maybe that’s the problem. David enjoys teasing Matteo, loves the way it makes him squirm and makes his eyes narrow in amused affront. But maybe Matteo is reading this as friendly rather than what it really is. Maybe it’s time to step up his game.

“Mmmm,” David says as he takes a sip of his beer, and making sure his tone is serious now even as the words are still a little teasing. “Mr workaholic has fun?”

Matteo opens his mouth as if to protest, but then he snaps it shut again and covers quickly by taking a long swig of his own beer. David gets it; he’s not good at admitting stuff like that either. Somehow, Matteo makes him want to be honest, though. 

He’s done the ‘I’m trans’ conversation and it went better than expected. Matteo had looked at him for a few moments, making him tense with anticipatory nerves, and then he’d just nodded and everything had been normal. The conversation had flowed easily on from that point. The frisson between them had remained, eyes meeting in heated glances, but whatever was holding Matteo back had stuck around too. 

“What’s the point of this party thing anyway?” Matteo asks eventually, setting his beer down on the table and leaning forward.

His hair flops into his eyes as usual, and as usual David has to fight the urge to push it away for him. His hands itch to feel those strands around his fingertips, wants to know if they’re as silky as they look. Wants to know if he can ever convince Matteo to stop hiding behind the hair and show his real face.

He doesn’t reach out though, instead settling further back in his chair and smiling. “Trying for a bit of building bonding,” he says. “It’s some sort of barbeque thing on the roof and then music and stuff. Bring your own beer or whatever.”

Matteo blinks, looking startled. “A bonding thing? I’ve lived here forever and they haven’t done anything like that.”

David shrugs. “It’s this new wellbeing thing everyone’s jumping on. Getting to know your neighbours is the new therapy, or something.”

As he’d hoped, Matteo laughs. David will do pretty much anything to hear that laugh, and he rebukes himself internally. He needs to chill and be cool. Except the only problem is that Matteo has already stripped away every layer of chill that David has and every layer of cool he’s ever dragged on. And he’d done it without even trying. He’d done it just by being Matteo.

“It sounds like shit,” Matteo says, taking his beer and smiling at David over the top before he drinks. “But since you begged so nicely…”

“I didn’t beg!” David says. “I asked. Just to save you from stewing in your own boring existence.”

Something shutters in Matteo’s eyes at that and it sparks David’s curiosity. Maybe that wasn’t too far from the mark. Maybe Matteo wasn’t doing exactly what he wanted with his constant working. Maybe he needed something, or someone, to shake him out of that rut.

Maybe he needs David to get off his ass and do something about whatever the hell they’re dancing around every time they meet. Maybe that could happen at a party where there’ll be real dancing to substitute for this fake one they’re doing right now.

He raises his bottle to Matteo in ironic salute. “To partying the boring out of our lives!” he says, acknowledging, in a way he knows Matteo will understand, that  _ he’s _ just as much in need of the energy and excitement of this friendship as Matteo is.

Matteo echoes him with a clink of his bottle and his eyes when he takes another drink are eager and hot, heavy with promise. David can work with that.


	4. Chapter 4

_ David _

Frustratingly, David doesn’t find many opportunities to visit Matteo before Saturday. Mostly that’s because he’s working almost all hours of the day again, and just isn’t home to be visited. But partly it’s because of David’s own responsibilities that he’s been seriously neglecting while spending so much time with Matteo. 

That means the next few days are filled with cramped neck and fingers as he works on some long delayed storyboards. Storyboards where the shadowy figures all start to look a lot like someone with messy hair pulled low over their eyes. It’s maddening just how far Matteo has infiltrated his psyche. Not that David minds exactly. Thinking about Matteo is never a hardship even if it cuts into his productivity.

So it’s with a sense of breathless anticipation that David stands outside Matteo’s door that Saturday evening, dressed in his second-best. Not that he generally classifies his clothes, exactly. Just that he’d definitely classify what he’s wearing as not his fanciest, not the sort he’d wear to a wedding or a formal occasion like that, but they’re up there. They look nice.

The patterned shirt is different to the one he wore to their first dinner, but it’s close enough that it should hopefully inspire some memories. A sense of pleasant nostalgia is David’s intention here. He wants Matteo to feel at ease and connected with David. He wants him to relax and remember. He wants to get him in a good, hopefully receptive, mood. Then he wants to get him alone and then … well, then he hopes he’ll have enough backbone to actually say something finally.

He knocks, a quick one-two-three with his knuckles and it’s only a few seconds before Matteo’s opening the door. In fact, he’s so fast that David thinks there’s a chance that he might have been waiting by that door. The very thought makes his breath catch in his throat.

Or maybe that’s Matteo himself. He too is wearing a shirt, patterned in gold and fitted in a way that many of his clothes just aren’t. His pants, when David’s eyes drift down to them, are tighter than usual too. His hair is its usual mess, pulled forward over his eyes in an eerie echo of all David’s work this week, but it’s damp as if Matteo has tried to style it and then run his hands through it in frustration. 

“You… you look good today,” David says and is mildly irritated to hear his voice is high and breathy.

Matteo smirks and grabs a jacket from a hook near the door. “You don’t scrub up too bad yourself,” he says as he pulls the door closed behind him and locks it. “Trying to impress the building’s bosses?”

“Maybe I am,” David says. “You know I covet that big apartment on the floor above mine.”

Rolling his eyes, Matteo pushes him with his shoulder. “That’s my apartment!”

“Mmmm, and I covet it. Who knows, if I dress well enough and dance well enough I may get them to kick out the workaholic person already in it.”

“Too bad for you that I look so good then,” Matteo says, pushing against the door to the staircase to the roof. “If they’re after looks and charm they’re going to pick me. How do you think I got it in the first place?”

Secretly, David agrees with Matteo. He’s lit up tonight, eyes bright, wide smile on his face and that teasing lilt to everything he says. It’s quite frankly a little devastating and David knows he’s helpless to resist. If they  _ were _ doling out apartments based on looks and charisma, Matteo would definitely be winning tonight.

They push open the door to the outdoor area on top of the building and Matteo stops dead still. It’s cold up here, the wind whistling around the exposed area and making them shiver. But that’s not what’s caused Matteo to halt this quickly. It’s covered in bright lights, bulbs lit up and casting colourful patterns on the people below. And  _ that’s _ what has stopped Matteo, David suspects. Because there are a lot of them, and they are noisy.

Pressing his fingers to the back of Matteo’s shirt (and feeling the frisson of energy buzzing through him from the warm skin of his back) David leans in to whisper, “I’ll protect you from the big bad crowd.”

“Fuck you,” Matteo mutters, and David is hard pressed not to instantly respond with, “if you want,” but instead manages to just smile when Matteo adds, “I need a drink.”

So David steers them both to the bar that’s been set up in one corner and grabs them both beers. They turn to lean back against it and observe the group. Some people are dancing to the somewhat frenetic song that’s playing, arms flailing as they shout along to the lyrics. It’s not one David knows so the sight is amusing. Still. The tune is catchy enough and soon his feet are tapping.

He wants to dance, but a glance sideways at Matteo suggests that he’s not all that keen. He’s frowning into his beer as if he hopes it can make this all disappear. And if David’s going to dance tonight, he knows who he wants it to be with. In the past he’d already be in the thick of things, but in the past he hasn’t had a Matteo. Not that he  _ has _ Matteo, but if he has any sort of chance here he’s not going to capitalise on it by being somewhere Matteo isn’t.

“Cheer up,” David whispers. “Enough beers in you and this will all seem like the best idea in the world.”

Matteo clinks his bottle against David’s and smiles. “That’s going to take a whole lot of beer.”

“Good thing we have a whole bar filled with it right here, then.”

Matteo laughs and leans back against the bar behind them, elbows hooked over the top as if he’s planning to stay there for quite some time. And moving him from that spot may just be a challenge David has to take up.

_ Matteo _

Leaning against the bar next to David is something like torture. He’s there, all lean body and hot, sexy eyes and a smile that could sink ships, and he keeps turning all that charm onto Matteo. He’s finding it hard to focus on what they’re really here for. Dancing. Bonding. Building wellbeing or whatever-excuse-for-a-party-it-was-this-time. But all he really wants to do is get David alone, and maybe after a few beers Matteo might be able to actually say something.

Something real.

The idea sends a shiver of fear through him, which David notices because he carefully rubs Matteo’s arm and whispers, “cold?”

Matteo shakes his head, head swimming from the proximity of David and the shiver of energy his hands shot through Matteo’s body when they touched. He has been very touchy tonight in a way that has made Matteo’s knees weak and his hands shake a little. It really is going to take a lot of beer to survive whatever is happening here. Matteo needs to relax but that’s next to impossible when David is right there looking so perfect and being so amazing.

He’s just finished his third beer, when David huffs finally and grabs his wrist to drag him out into the middle of the dance floor. The song’s just changed to something Matteo doesn’t recognise, but which David clearly does. He sways in close to Matteo mouthing the words, his body moving in a way that makes it very clear that he’s an experience and very agile dancer. Something he’s been keeping very quiet from Matteo it seems.

The beat of the song is sensuous, the thumping rhythm of the previous ones mellowing into something softer and much more sexy. Something that’s quite dangerous to Matteo’s wellbeing. At least it will be if David keeps moving his body like that, hips swinging from side to side as he presses closer. 

The beer has gone straight to Mmatteo’s head and he’s feeling reckless and a little bit loose. So he sways closer to David in his turn, lets his hands settle to his waist, thumbs pressing softly into the smooth skin that’s exposed as he raises his hands.

For a long second they stay like that, David with his arms raised and Matteo’s fingers gently brushing his skin with nothing between the two of them but a couple of shirts and an inch or so of air. Then David throws his head back and laughs, his hands drop down to Matteo’s shoulders and he spins them both around.

Matteo clutches him closer, knocked off balance by a mixture of alcohol and David’s heady presence. They stay like that for a few more songs, dancing together easily, their bodies heated and alive in the developing darkness which even the multiple coloured lights can’t really illuminate, not here in the middle of the dance floor. Not here where they’re protected from sight by the numerous other bodies dipping and moving to the music.

They end up forehead to forehead during a particularly slow number. Matteo’s hands have slicked up with the heat and have slipped around behind David’s back to ensure a greater stability as they move. David’s have occasionally dropped down to Matteo’s arms, squeezing a promise onto his skin through the flimsy fabric of his shirt before returning to sit easily on his shoulders. 

Matteo shivers and tips his head back, wants to see what’s going on in David’s eyes. Wants to know if he’s imagining all of this or if there could be something happening. David mirrors his movement until they’re both looking into each other’s eyes and they’re so close. It feels closer like this, more intimate, than it did when their foreheads were touching.

Matteo’s hands are back on David’s hips, and the heated skin there catches Matteo’s breath and makes him shiver again in the cool air. David reaches his fingers up and brushes the hair back off Matteo’s face. “Why do you hide so much?” he says, so quietly Matteo’s not even sure he was meant to hear it.

So he just smiles, lets his eyes close and enjoys the feeling of those fingers, slight callouses on the tips, pushing through his hair. Then pressing again before trailing down until they gently brush over Matteo’s ear and he shudders with the sudden burst of want that hits him and his own fingers clasp more tightly at David’s waist.

He opens his eyes to a fond smile from David. “Do you want to get out of here?’ he asks. “I think maybe we should talk.”

Dazed, Matteo nods his agreement. It’s time, he thinks. Time to stop this dancing they’ve been doing around each other. The real dancing they’ve been doing tonight has just highlighted just how much metaphorical dancing they’ve done. It proves, if Matteo had really needed any proof, that it’s time to say something real for once.

So David holds out his hand as he steps back and Matteo reaches out to take it, and together they make their way over to the door back down to their apartments. Back down to reality, whatever that may be. The promise is heavy in the air around them as they leave together.


	5. Chapter 5

_ Matteo _

By the time they’ve made it to the door, David’s hand is hot in Matteo’s. Their fingers have slipped together, sliding into place and curled around each other as if they’ve been doing this forever. In some ways, Matteo thinks they kind of  _ have _ been doing it forever. This moment has seemed inevitable from that very first dinner all that time ago.

Not that it’s been that long; the fact that they spend time together most days has masked how short a period of time it’s been since they actually met. It’s been less than a month since David even moved into the building, but in many ways it feels like he’s been part of Matteo’s life for much longer. His presence is so vivid in what had become a dull and routine existence.

Once they shut the door to the party behind them, Matteo stops and leans on it, feeling overwhelmed now he’s out of the frenetic chaos of the dance floor. Being with David had masked just how  _ much _ all those people had been. Matteo pausing has the effect of halting David in his tracks, too, of course, since they’re both connected by their hands. David looks back at him with his brows raised in question.

It’s unfairly attractive. He’s glowing and alive in a way that Matteo would love to be, in a way he’d also love to keep looking at forever.

“Sorry,” Matteo says, dragging his eyes away. “It’s getting a bit much. I just need to take a breath.”

David comes back to lean against the door beside him. He doesn’t speak, but his arm is so close to Matteo’s that they’re effectively touching from shoulder to hands, a mere whisper of air between their shirt sleeves, and their hands are still lightly clasped together.

His head pressed back against the cool certainty of the door and feeling more grounded already, Matteo turns to look at David only to find his eyes steady on him. There’s concern there, and something that looks like fear or uncertainty. Matteo allows himself to smile, lets his feelings play out onto his face, lets himself show David how much he wants to be here with him. David’s responding grin lights him up and makes Matteo’s stomach do strange twisty things.

“You okay?” David asks quietly.

“Yeah.” Matteo sighs and pushes away from the door. “It’s so many people is all. Sometimes I can get…” he trails off with a vague flap of his hand to indicate his overwhelmed feelings.

David nods as if he gets it. “You wanna go down to my place?” he asks, and Matteo sucks in a breath. That’s not a normal part of their routine. In fact, Matteo hasn’t been inside David’s apartment, the only times he’s been downstairs they’ve met outside David’s door. Their friendship has developed mostly through David’s insistent knocking on Matteo’s door at any and all hours.

“Yeah okay,” Matteo says after a short pause to assimilate that suggestion and figuring out that actually  _ yes _ he really does want to go to David’s space. “You intending to wow me with your superior decor?”

David smirks, shaking his head. “No. I want you to take pity on me because my place is nowhere near as cool as yours.”

Matteo snorts, disbelieving. “Yeah my bare walls and stacks of boxes are a real crowd pleaser.”

They keep bickering in this line as they make their way down to David’s place, and it settles Matteo a little. Because this is familiar, this teasing they do. It hides the new found knowledge that there is handholding happening and that other things could potentially happen too. It makes all of this seem much more natural and much less like a huge step out into the unknown.

David opens his door and pushes it back with a flourish, waving Matteo ahead of him into the apartment. As Matteo steps inside, he feels like yeah of course David’s place would be like this. Like Matteo’s it’s minimalistic, but unlike Matteo’s it feels like there’s a purpose to everything. 

Scattered hand drawn pictures are peppered over the walls alongside some plants which look well cared for, unlike the sad little ones in Matteo’s apartment. There’s only one small couch and a coffee table in the middle of the living room, but nothing about this apartment feels empty. It is much smaller than Matteo’s place, but it feels a lot more like a home.

Matteo finds himself sucking in a breath and turning back to look at David. He’s hovering by the door, his lip bitten in between his teeth. He looks anxious, as if Matteo’s opinion matters. That’s not something Matteo has had much experience with, holding someone’s comfort in his hands like this. It feels big, makes him feel like David might just be as invested in whatever is happening here as Matteo is.

He smiles, moves back towards David and takes his hand again. “I think I have apartment envy,” he says. “You’ve only been here for practically no time at all and you have it looking like this? What sort of witchcraft?”

David laughs, his body relaxing as he takes Matteo’s other hand in his, and that one touch means apartments don’t seem to matter anymore, where they are irrelevant in the face of their hands connected between them. David ignores the question. There’s a look in his eyes that sparks warmth down Matteo’s spine and makes him sway, unsteady on his feet under the intensity of that look.

Then David’s fingers are back in Matteo’s hair, pushing it back off his face and trailing down and over his ear again. All the feelings from the rooftop are back, and Matteo can’t breathe. If it was overwhelming on the roof, it’s electric here. There anything was possible, here  _ everything _ is and Matteo closes his eyes again to make the moment last a second longer.

“What are we doing?” David whispers eventually. 

Shrugging, opening his eyes to try to read David, Matteo manages to say, “I don’t know.” Because he doesn’t. He knows what he wants, but he can’t quite believe it’s possible even with his hands clasped in David’s and david’s eyes warm and intense on his own. So he falls back on his old standby, the one that meant he didn’t have to commit to anything in any sort of rush.

The smile David gives him is understanding, as if he gets it. “I don’t know either. But I do know what it should be.”

_ David _

Matteo’s eyes widen when David says that, his lips twitch in what David is coming to understand as Matteo’s happy smile, and David breathes out a small sigh of relief. He’s not been imagining it then. The dancing and the flirting and the handholding. That’s not just a thing Matteo does, that means something.

David had brought Matteo here to his own space rather than their familiar routine of Matteo’s because he’d needed to know. As ridiculous as it probably is, David needs to show all of himself to Matteo before he can really jump into whatever this is. But even so, there was the lingering fear that they really are just friends, that all of this has been David’s overeager desire to make a connection. That fear has gone now, dissipated into the curves of that beautiful smile Matteo’s wearing.

Wanting to see the way Matteo’s eyes flutter when he’s feeling too much, David runs his fingers over his cheek and down his jaw. He’s not disappointed as those eyes slip closed, and the smile that flickers onto his lips, widening in their wake is small and perfect.

Staring into that face, David’s done with all this messing around. Matteo’s fingers twitch in his hands and David just thinks  _ fuck it _ and presses a quick kiss to his lips. It’s brief, only the smallest brush of lips together but it feels bigger than that, weighty. Matteo’s eyes fly open and a wide grin splits his face when their eyes meet.

“Still don’t know?” David asks, and revels in the way Matteo’s eye dance as he rolls them.

“You’re such a dick.”

“Yeah well… you kissed this dick.”

The exasperated smile this time is off the scale as Matteo pushes him with his shoulder, bringing them closer together rather than further apart. David is totally okay with that. 

“Technically you kissed me, so technically I’m still winning.”

“It’s a competition?”

In response, Matteo grabs his shirt and pulls him in close. “If you want it to be,” he whispers then kisses David again. This one is longer, not the exploratory and hesitant first attempt. Matteo’s hands come up to cup David’s face, and David finds his fingers tangled in Matteo’s hair again, caressing his ear then down along his jaw to hover where Matteo’s pulse is heavy and fast on his neck.

There’s no-one here but the two of them, and it’s as if the weeks of slow flirtation press in behind them giving everything meaning and purpose. Excitement. Everything feels  _ more. _ More intense, more meaningful, more deliberate. Just more. They split apart eventually, and David’s eyes flick over Matteo’s face taking in every detail now that he can.

“Okay fine,” David says after a few moments. “You win. I don’t want a competition.”

“What do you want then?” Matteo asks.

“I want you to stay.”

“Bold.”

But there’s laughter in that voice and a bloom on his face. Over the past few weeks, David would have said he’d come to know Matteo pretty well. That he knew the nuances of his face, the way his body would sit when he was feeling settled or slump slightly when he was unhappy. David would have argued that he had a good understanding of what made Matteo tick. 

But looking at him now, David realises he’s never seen him truly relaxed before. And he really likes what it does for Matteo. His shoulders have an ease to them which calls attention to the amount of tension he must usually carry with him. And the things that relaxation does to his face make David’s stomach flip again, particularly when he licks his lips and David’s instantly reminded of what he was just doing with those lips.

“Seriously, though,” he says quietly, trying to change the tone to something more sincere. “Will you stay?”

“Depends,” Matteo says just as quietly, slipping into the same tone as if they’ve been doing this their entire lives, as if mirroring moods is as natural to them as breathing. And maybe it is.

“On what?”

“On where this is going.”

The tension is back, a slight stiffness in the lines of his back and shoulders that tells David everything he needs to know.

“I want it to go… somewhere,” he says, taking Matteo’s hands again. “I’m sick of the bullshit where we pretend to do casual shit for a while. We kind of already did that part.”

“That’s true,” Matteo says, his easy grin back now. “You were irritatingly present at all hours of the day and night.”

In another time and another life David might have felt that as a criticism, taken it to heart, resolved to stay the hell away from Matteo to avoid the stabbing sting of the words. But today he just laughs, knows Matteo doesn’t mean it like  _ that. _ “You loved it.”

“Yeah,” Matteo admits, his smile slipping back into the fond one, the small private one that feels like it’s David’s and no-one else’s. “I kind of did.”

Three words lie there in the ensuing silence, but neither of them says them. David doesn’t know about Matteo, but he thinks they’re coming, those three words. That feeling is creeping up on him. It’s been a month, more or less, but he’s still sure. This isn’t a casual thing, lasting only as long as it takes for the latest fad to change. This feels more permanent than that. It had felt more permanent than that almost as soon as they had met.

“So you’ll stay?”

Matteo looks at him for an almost alarmingly long time before he nods, licking his lips and pushing his hair back off his face in that way he has that always does things to David. His eyes when they hold David’s are bright and beautiful, filled with a happiness David has hardly ever seen there.

“Yeah, I think I will.”


	6. Chapter 6

_ David _

A resounding series of thuds at his door announces a visitor, and David carefully runs his fingers through his hair to be sure it’s looking its best. Because there’s only one person who ever announces himself that way, and even though it’s been quite a few weeks since they got together, David still hasn’t tired of the way Matteo’s face changes when he answers the door. And he’s not above making absolutely sure he gets to see that look.

The door swings open and he’s there, eyes lit up the way they always are these days and his face already doing the thing. The eyes drift lazily over the planes of David’s face and while they do so his lips twitch into a small smile. It’s that smile David has always loved without ever really understanding that it’s  _ his _ smile, the one saved just for the times when Matteo sees him.

“Hey,” he says, reaching out to pull Matteo into a kiss. Matteo hums softly in a pleased manner as his own hands come up to settle in a casual loop around David’s neck.

“Hey,” he smiles back. “I missed you.”

“It’s been a few hours at most!”

It’s funny how something so simple can make David’s day. It’s been the length of a workday since Matteo left. A normal workday, not the usual epic ones Matteo used to pull. It feels good for David to know he’s someone Matteo wants to see so much that he’s changing his routines and patterns to accommodate their time together.

Matteo shrugs. “A few hours too long,” he says, seemingly unaware of just how sappy that sounds. David laughs and drags him into a long hug. This is one of the things he’s enjoyed the most these last weeks, the hugging. Matteo gives great hugs and never lets go until they’re both satisfied. For someone who’s never really received hugs, it’s something David revels in.

Over the last few weeks it’s become much more common for the two of them to camp in David’s apartment than in Matteo’s despite Matteo’s being larger and a better designed space. Somehow, with David often doing his work from home and his apartment being on the way up to Matteo’s, Matteo just doesn’t manage to make it past David’s door. And then they just stay.

“I think you only love me because there’s one less staircase to climb here,” David had said one day, and Matteo had laughed and shoved him.

“Well that makes us even because you only love me for the size of my apartment,” he’d retorted, and that had resulted in a wrestling match that had ended with them breathless and panting, each claiming victory and both reluctant to back down. The resulting kissing had been so damn good that David thinks he should instigate play fights more often.

This thing that’s bloomed between them is so good that David has started thinking of permanence, and it’s such a shocking thought that he’s kept burying it again. But tonight, with Matteo pliant and warm in his arms, buried into his neck in a way that shows he’s obviously needing this hug as much as David does, it’s getting much harder to ignore.

David wants to say it, blurt out the small idea that’s been creeping up on him at odd times and in strange places. Buying a tub of icecream that he knows Matteo likes, David will think about how it’s nice they can have this in their place. Or sketching something he knows they’d both find hilarious, and David will giggle thinking about how much Matteo will love it on their walls. And that’s the thing. There is no ‘their walls’ or ‘their place’ and the fact that David’s brain keeps thinking this way is a little surprising.

He knows Laura would laugh her head off if he ever told her. That David, the guy who kept insisting on having so little stuff that he could pack and run quickly at a moment’s notice, would be so invested in this guy he’s seeing that he keeps having domesticated fantasies of shared spaces and lots of ‘stuff’ together? Well, she’d see the funny side all right, and never let him forget it for the rest of his life.

And it’s not like she’d be wrong. In the greater scheme of things, he hasn’t been with Matteo for all that long. These sorts of thoughts are coming on him far too soon. But just the same way he’d felt a sense of the forever almost as soon as he’d met Matteo, David is getting a sense of permanence with this too. 

“Hey, where’d you go?” Matteo asks, dropping his arms from around David’s neck and stepping back so he can look into his face. His eyes flick, taking in David’s expression, and his own softens in response. 

“Just indulging in some weird domestic fantasies,” David admits after a moment. 

“Ones where I come home after a long day of work and you have my slippers by a fireplace and a lovely meal on the table?” Matteo teases.

David laughs. “Only if you want to be poisoned,” he says. “If we’re living that fantasy, then you’re going to have to be the one with the slippers and the fire and the food.”

Matteo sighs. “Some days I think that might not be so awful,” he says. “How come no-one tells you that working isn’t all that much fun?”

“Because if they did, you know no-one would ever do it.”

“That’s true,” Matteo says, finally slinging his backpack off and chucking it in the corner that’s become his after so many days of doing this. His shoes follow suit and David’s struck again by how practised this all is. The way he’s settled into the spaces in David’s apartment as if he’s meant to be here forever.

He wonders all over again if they shouldn’t at least talk about it.

_ Matteo _

There’s something different about David today. He’s energetic in a way that he isn’t often, buzzing with a hidden joy he’s not sharing. It’s a side of him that Matteo is finding decidedly attractive. His smile is brighter, his laughter quicker to come and slower to fade away. His eyes are lit up, the brown warm and happy.

He’s also saying things that are making Matteo’s heart beat faster with a hope he hasn’t really been able to express before. Because he  _ wants _ this. He wants to come home to David every day forever. But the sensible side of his mind tells him that he should park those ideas until sometime in the future. That what they have right now is good, and doing anything to rock that boat would be very stupid.

Still.  _ Domestic fantasies. _ That’s got to mean something, right? That’s got to mean David might be on the same page at least in some aspect. 

“You know what I miss,” Matteo says as he plops down onto the couch and reaches a hand out to David, hoping he’ll take the hint and come and sit with Matteo.

“What?”

He settles down next to Matteo on the couch, propping his leg over top of Matteo’s and pressing a kiss to his hair as his arm slides around behind Matteo’s shoulder. It’s something they do almost every night, and yet it never fails to make Matteo’s heart explode with some sort of delighted warmth.

“The way you’d come up to my apartment with the worst excuses to see me.”

“My excuses were amazing!” David protests. 

“Can I borrow a cup of sugar?” Matteo says, mimicking David’s voice in a way that makes him push him and his leg slips off Matteo’s as he does so. That means he can slide down a little and rest his head into the juncture between Matteo’s shoulder and his neck, so it’s not an entirely bad thing, and Matteo shivers as David’s breath huffs out and over his sensitive skin as he speaks.

“If you want me to do stuff like that again, you have to face the horrors of the climb up to your apartment.”

Matteo makes a face at the thought. “No thanks,” he says. “I like this better. Why go up there when I can have a nice warm boyfriend right here a whole set of stairs closer?”

Inside, his heart is pounding. He wants to say it, but he doesn’t know how. How he’d be happy to stop here every day for the rest of time if it means he can share the space with David. 

It should be alarming, but it’s not. Matteo’s never really had a sense of wanting to stay in one place for long enough to put down roots. He thinks there’s a reason he still hasn’t totally unpacked all his boxes or put more personality into his walls and furnishings. He’s never really felt like that place is one he’ll stay in for the long term. He’s always expected he’d move on, the way he always has.

Only now he doesn’t want that anymore. He spends less time at work because there’s something at home that’s brighter and more interesting than his projects. And that also has to be telling, that he thinks of this as ‘at home’ in a way he has never really considered his own apartment to be.

But he can’t bring himself to say it, not yet. These weeks have been the most amazing weeks of Matteo’s life, but that’s what makes it all that much more difficult. How can he be sure this will last? As much as they said they weren’t doing anything short term or half hearted, it still feels new and special to Matteo whenever he’s here. It still feels like something shining and bright must have to end sometime.

As if he can read Matteo’s mind, David stirs next to him, his head moving on Matteo’s shoulder so he can look at him.

“Matteo?”

“Mmmm?”

“I’ve been thinking.”

“About domestic fantasies, I know,” Matteo says, grinning at him. 

That earns him another shove and a, “shut up!” which makes him laugh. Then David’s face settles into something more serious and Matteo’s grin fades. It’s one of  _ those _ times, then. The times when they stop teasing and say something meaningful.

“It is sort of about domestic fantasies,” David says quietly after a few moments. “Or one anyway.” He sucks in a breath and sits up so he can look at Matteo full in the eyes. Matteo swallows; the intensity in those eyes is a lot to deal with and he’s unsure if he can hold that gaze.

“I thought how nice it would be to… to combine our stuff.”

Matteo’s breath is punched out of him at the words. It seems like as much as he was thinking about this, David has been too. To be sure, though, Matteo has to check. He doesn’t want to be in a position where he’s misreading something like this.

“Combine our stuff?”

“Yeah. Like… like in one apartment. Permanently.”

“That’s a lot,” Matteo says carefully. Because he doesn’t want to get his hopes up. He doesn’t want to think about it and then have them decide not to do it. He doesn’t want this shining hope to be dashed.

David nods. “It is a lot. It’s just… I’ve been thinking about it for a long time.”

“So have I,” Matteo admits. “It’s just really soon.”

David nods. “I know. But I think we should think about it. Sometime.”

It hurts exactly as much as Matteo had thought it might to think of pushing this all out to some indeterminate future sometime, so he says something impulsive. “Compromise.”

“Compromise?”

“Yeah. Maybe we can keep both apartments, you know just in case we need both. But … I’d love to combine our stuff into one.”

“Yeah?” 

Matteo nods. “But which one would we live in?”

“Yours.”

The response is so quick that Matteo has to laugh. “You really do just want me for my apartment, huh? I think we should pick yours,” Matteo teases and David rolls his eyes. 

But Matteo can tell his thoughts must be showing entirely on his face, because a grin has started to spread over David’s.

“I think you just want me for my one less set of stairs.”

“So we’re just swapping, then?”

“Ass.”

It’s soon, and Matteo goes over every argument he’s had with himself over the last few weeks about exactly this situation and why it’s  _ too soon. _ But he also knows it feels right. They’ve lived in each other’s pockets practically since that first dinner anyway, and there’s always been something inevitable about this.

“We’ll decide later,” Matteo suggests. “It doesn’t have to be right now.” His stomach grumbles at that moment and he raises his brows. “I think we should get celebratory pizza and decide over that.”

Reaching for his phone to place an order, David agrees. But then he adds, “but it’s going to be yours,” making Matteo roll his eyes.

Maybe he’s going to be doomed to climbing that extra set of stairs for the rest of his life if david gets his way. But then he thinks, as he watches David making their usual order in a way that betrays the familiarity of this routine, that maybe it’s not so bad to climb more stairs if David will be waiting at the top of them.


End file.
